and a new election is called. >>> prime minister shinno abe has -- the council on economic and fiscal policy is one of his two key pillars of his economic plan, along with a new task force to revive the economy. he chaired the first session of the council which reopened on wednesday after over three years of suspension. the financial minister, and bank of japan governor and four specialists from the private sector also took part. >> translator: in this panel we will discuss key policy matters to revitalize the japanese economy. i hope the members will draw up an outline of the government's economic and fiscal policies by the middle of this year. >>> as a first step to revitalize japan 'economy, they discussed a stimulus package worth nearly $230 billion. it focuses on public works projects. abe also asked the panel to look for ways of cooperation to pull the country out of deflakes. >>> their agenda includes adjusting tax rates for the wealthy. a tax panel made up of policy chiefs. wants to compile the agenda between the main opposition. officials called for the government to take low-income

. of course from is a political dimension to this. japanese vote again in july in the election for the upper house and abe needs to show he's doing something to speed the recovery. >> there's a lot of money involved. the question is will it work? >> certainly these measures will provide a temporary boost but they will not solve the underlying problems. abe says he'll build his economic policy on three pillars -- increased public spending, monetary easing and doing more to encourage growth. we've seen in the stimulus how abe plans to spend taxpayers' money. on top of that he is urging the bank of japan to set an inflation target of 2% and to get more money flowing through the economy. the lines on the final pillar measures toward growth are less clear. some have insisted sustainable growth will only come by making industries more competitive through deregulation. but, government leaders have yet to articulate how they'll make that happen. >> you just mentioned this could be a temporary boost. i guess the question is what does abe need to do in the longer term. >> the labor force is shrinking.

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